Monday, 16 October 2017

Staff Meeting Reflection - Anne Kennelly

Anne Kennelly (ICT) came and spoke to us yesterday regarding the further development of ICT within the school. She has undertaken PD within the school before however ICT development has stalled to a certain extent, for want of a better word. We completed a survey which gave an indepth reflection of the school ICT progress. It is hoped this will help give us future direction to allow ICT to continue to make progress. I personally feel that there is some very good work being done within the school with regard to ICT. Within my own classroom ICT is used daily, examples of how we document our learning with this is  - Slideshows,  I-movies, Googles Docs, Google Slides, Pic collage, Chapter Chat, Tweet sessions with other schools and children have a learning file in which their own digital work is stored.
I would like to work on children documenting their own learning more on our classroom blog (ie Art self reflections could have been blogged?) and incorporating our IT for more than just games within our Mathematics sessions.

Anne introduced the session with the below video, a thought provoking piece about Autistic children at a school in Hackney and how their environment plays a huge part in their learning development. As we have just been lucky enough to receive brand new furniture in Room 6 it was a timely reminder that the view to our outside learning space is also a powerful tool and that perhaps our space inside the classroom could also be restructured to further benefit the children. (Especially certain children - HL, HTP, PC)





Anne's presentation


Tuesday, 3 October 2017

Mathematics Symposium - 3rd October 2017

Annual Mathematics Symposium held at Logan Park, 3rd October, 2017

Workshop 1 - Cool Coders -Dave Waddell

http://bit.ly/symposium2017dave

Very useful workshop, particularly in relation to our Launch programme. Some very good ideas for beginning coding activities, would be good for our children who have found the concept of coding difficult.


Workshop 2: Maths as a Vehicle for Collaboration - Angie Malae







Workshop 3: Unlocking the Treasure Trove of Mathematical Language - Viv Thompson

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15eea1d4f4f4e824?projector=1


Monday, 18 September 2017

Colour Workshop - Waikari School 18th September

Hannah and I attended an Art workshop at Waikari School, presented by Anna Dixon.
It was a very practical approach to colour in the classroom and Anna had some fabulous ideas for all year levels. (Art activities could be modified to suit year levels).
Her Colour Theory prints were particularly interesting and her use of the gel plates for printing is something I think we should be incorporating in our Printmaking unit. I will look at purchasing a set and using next year.


     

    
    

    

    

    

   

   

Thursday, 17 August 2017

Stem PD - Phillipa Dick


Sarah, Paul, Jo and I  attended a PD session at the Polytech with Phillipa Dick about implementing STEM sessions within our program for the Year 4, 5 and 6.
I organised our first session last week based around a Moon Landing, this tied in with our Inquiry topic. Children worked in groups to create a moon lander to safely land their "Aliens". They watched a Nasa video and discussed what shock absorbers were. They then had to use given equipment to make their lander.

Update - Our Stem session has been further refined in Term 3 with the development of our own Stem programme - Launch. 

  

             

                   




Paper Roller Coasters: http://paperrollercoasters.com/
Dome Den: http://makercamp.com/projects/dome-den (lots of maths - accurate measurement)





Electricity - Motors. LEDs etc.

Bots:
Other Circuits:

Makey Makeys:


Website for the Edison robots: www.meetedison.com

Equipment:






Monday, 27 March 2017

Sunday, 26 March 2017

Sarah Peeters Professional Development Feedback

Improving Boys Literacy
* Emotional needs to be addressed before learning can occur.
*Disorganised attachment - Hunter, unable to process organisational requirements
*Language should be - I expect......., not have you done that, why haven't you done it etc
*Movement essential for boys in the classroom.... wriggle time, brain breaks - purposeful. Talk and  walk break - ie walk around the room and engage in partner work, peer editing etc.
*Only hand in work that you are proud of.
*Hunting in Nambia- Ray Mears -World Survival -

Teacher plan
* Manage children's expectations before learning
*Engineer a class culture of self management- persistence
*Ask " How can I help you?"

- Language within the classroom - "Hey, you must have worked hard to get this result", instead of you are good at that.




Thursday, 26 January 2017

Relationships with Learners.

https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion


In this TED talk Rita Pierson discusses the importance of having a healthy, respectful, culturally accepting relationship with every learner.

In my class I have 23 students who I have never taught before, fostering relationships at the beginning of the school year is vital in establishing a safe environment in which children feel they can succeed. It sets the foundation for them to take responsibility for their learning, challenge themselves and support and respect those around them.

Our principal, Jo set us the task of responding to these 3 questions.
     *Do I really know my learner?
     *What impact is my teaching having on student achievement?
     *What changes do I need to make to help this child's progress?